Tanesco Says No Threat of Power Shedding

December 15, 2009

According to a recent report by The Citizen, Tanzania Electricity Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) has officially made the announcement that, in spite of the grounding of several Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) turbines, there will not be any further power shedding.
To this end, the public relations manager for Tanesco, Badra Masoud indicated that her firm was supplied with enough electricity to fill the gap that was left by IPTL shut down six of its generators, which are responsible for the production of 60MW of power.

In addition, Ms. Masoud went on to say that there were also other sources that were available to help fill in the gap.

Tanzania recently experienced power shortages following the failure of the Songas turbines in Ubungo and the mechanical failings at the Kihansi power station, which altogether took approximately 80MW of power from the national power grid.

In addition to these losses, low water levels at many of the country’s hydro-electric dams, including Hale, augmented the power problems.

IPTL, which had remained idle for nearly two years, was brought back into production last month in order to help deal with these shortages.

Currently, Tanesco receives its power both from hydro-electric dams, which are located in Kidatu, Mtera, Kihansi, New Pangani falls, Hale, Nyumba ya Mungu, and from gas plants, which are located in Ubungo, Songas and IPTL.

According to Ms. Masoud, in an effort to counteract the gap that was left by IPTl, Tanesco is currently working to switch on the firm’s newest source, the 45MW Tegeta power plant.

The public relations manager went on to explain in The Citizen report that the new gas-powered generator at Tegeta was ready to be commissioned at any time and that the firm had taken steps to ensure that all of the sources of power from both the hydro-electric stations and the gas powered machines were producing at their fullest capacity.

“Various measures are being taken to make sure that all hydro-electric turbines and gas function to the maximum,” she said, “Our turbines are all operating to capacity.”

Ms. Masoud went on to explain that, while some people may relate emergency power interruptions to load shedding, they are not, in fact, related.

The Citizen report went on to further explain that, according to Ms. Masoud, the majority of Tanesco’s power sources, except for the Kihansi turbine, have already resumed normal production.

According to the report, the Kidatu and Hale plants, which had been malfunctioning, have been repaired and have begun generating power again.

The Kihansi hydro-electricity plant, which is currently being repaired, is responsible for the production of approximately 60MW of power.